Accountant, Jessica and Sales Manager, Patrick met by chance when the best-man-to-be was caught up at work one night.

A well-planned birthday proposal followed and the pair ended up having their dream wedding day complete with Train music, visiting Grandparents and a beautiful venetian lace dress.

We'll let Jessica fill you in on the rest...

How did you meet? Patrick's best man Stefan has never been the most punctual person. One evening Patrick went to pick him up from work at St Johns Bar after Stefan had said 'oui oui I'll be ready in 5mins come in come in, have a drink'. So Patrick went in only to find that Stefan still had a whole table to finish serving! Needless to say, he was not terribly impressed. But half an hour later my (soon to be bridesmaid) Lydia and I walked in, and the rest, as they say, is history!

Tell us about the proposal: It was my birthday, and I'd been teasing Patrick earlier in the day that this would be a good day to propose (we'd been talking about getting engaged for a couple of months already). He very quickly dashed my ideas by saying he'd just been so busy with work (true), and that he wanted to make it really special. So he told me not to get my hopes up for that night (which I totally fell for). We went for dinner with one of my best friends Claire, (Patrick's co-conspirator!) and her partner John. Being french-speaking, Patrick has a lot of friends who are French and lots of them work at the restaurant Hippopotamus. So, he had organised this whole night with all of them. Louis (the pastry chef) made me a surprise dessert which came out with a sugar spun ring on top of it. Patrick then got down on one knee in front of the whole restaurant (which was dead quite because they'd turned all the music off) and proposed. It was amazing.

Location of wedding: We got married in my home town, Havelock North, at the Catholic church I'd been going to since I was little, Our Lady of Lourdes Parish. My wonderful uncle, Bishop Graham Rose, flew all the way over from South Africa (my parents are South African) to marry us. We then had the reception out at Sileni Winery with Sam Orton catering. Sam and his team were amazing, and made the whole reception run so smoothly for us.

Describe your wedding day: It's so cliche, but it was one of the best days I've ever had. It was such a relaxed day. Noone could believe I wasn't nervous, but I knew that I was marrying the most amazing man - what did I have to be nervous about! I walked down the aisle to 'Marry Me' by Train, and Patrick's face at the end of it was all I needed to see.I also got the best surprise in the form of the wedding cake. Our friend Louis made it and it was so delicious and gorgeous. We were very spoilt.

The dress: I found my dream dress, after an extensive search, at Astra Bridal in Wellington. They were the most lovely ladies and they made it so easy for me. My dress was a Karelina Sposa venetian lace dress with lace capped sleeves and a beautiful train. I loved it, and it fitted like a glove.

The flowers: Jenn from Zinnia was a dream. She did such a beautiful job and was so helpful, especially when I rang her in the week leading up to the wedding with an emergency request for buttonholes! We had blue hydrangeas as our main flowers, and planned to source extras from friends (in out attempt to keep the budget down!). However, thanks to the drought in Hawkes Bay this year, everyone we planned to get them from had ended up with pink hydrangeas! We eventually found some, but it made the week leading up to the wedding a bit stressful.

Highlight of the wedding: Having so many of our family from so far away (South Africa, Canada, Cayman Islands, Germany, Australia and so on) make such a big effort to come and join us. Especially my Gran who travelled all the way over from South Africa at 84 years old! It made the day so very very special for us.

Was there any drama? Thanks to my extremely organised mother the day went off without a hitch! The only slight drama was sourcing the extra flowers in the week leading up to the wedding.

The honeymoon: We went to Bali for 10 days and it was amazing. We got a free upgrade to a private villa and felt like royalty!

Your photographer and favourite photo? We had Tim Whittaker as our photographer. His photos are amazing. My favourite photo is of Patrick and I in front of Hawthorne house kissing.We also had Grant Mayer do our videography and him and his team produced a video that we will treasure forever. See it here.